A spokeswoman for the United States Postal Service (USPS) confirmed Thursday the post office in Tilly — which was previously under study for closure — will remain open — though with reduced business hours — as part of a USPS effort to maintain rural post offices.

Statewide, 391 post offices are scheduled to see shortened business hours, beginning after Labor Day, at the earliest, according to USPS Customer Relations Coordinator Leisa Tolliver-Gay. Tilly’s office will reduce its hours of operation from eight hours to four.

Tolliver-Gay said some of the 172 offices in Arkansas that were previously slated for closure in March had already closed by May 9, when an announcement was made about USPS’s new strategy of keeping offices open. She added the offices that have already been closed will not re-open.

“Very few of those were already closed,” she said. “The rest of them are on the list to have their hours reduced.”

By reducing hours in offices nationwide, USPS aims to gain $500 million in annual savings after the plan’s full implementation.

Pope County Judge Jim Ed Gibson, who was one of several public figures to attend a meeting in December concerning the then-possible closure of Tilly’s post office, said four hours of operation is better than none, which is what many of the area’s residents feared.

“I’d rather see it stay open four hours than have it close in its entirety,” Gibson said. “Something is better than nothing.”

While Gibson said in a March interview with The Courier that the post office generates a tremendous amount of business due to its proximity to Superior Forestry, he said Thursday he feels the residents who use the office will be able to adjust to the new hours.

“It’ll just be something that the residents will have to get accustomed to, and I think they can,” Gibson said.

“It may be inconvenient but I think it can meet the needs.”

Gibson added that it’s important the residents use the post office and try to ensure its operation through time.

“We’ll have to push to not let them just phase it out. That’s a concern of mine,” he said. “We’ll need to fight to keep what we’ve got.”

Other Arkansas River Valley post offices to see reduced hours include: